1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator and a method of making shaved ice, and, more particularly, to a refrigerator and a method of making shaved ice that is capable of controlling a feeding rate of ice, whereby the ice is fed in the optimum quantity necessary to make shaved ice.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a refrigerator includes a refrigerating compartment and a freezing compartment, which are operated at different temperatures. Some of the cool air generated from an evaporator of the freezing compartment is supplied to the refrigerating compartment, or an additional evaporator is disposed in the refrigerating compartment to lower the temperature in the refrigerating compartment. Therefore, foods are maintained in a fresh state in the refrigerator.
Recently, there has been increasingly used a refrigerator with an ice/water dispenser that allows cold water or ice to be taken out of the refrigerator without opening a door of the refrigerator, as a quality and a capacity of the refrigerator is increased. There has also been proposed another refrigerator with an ice shaver to shave cubed ice made in the freezing compartment into shaved ice, and then discharge the shaved ice out of the freezing compartment, which eliminates the necessity of an additional ice-shaving unit to make ice water.
The ice shaver of the refrigerator is disposed under the discharge port of an ice bucket to store cubed ice made by an ice shaver, and the cubed ice discharged from the ice bucket is shaved into shaved ice by the ice shaver. The ice bucket has a spiral feeding unit to feed the stored ice to the discharge port. The feeding unit is connected to an ice-feeding motor, which is disposed at the rear of the ice bucket. In the ice shaver is defined an ice-shaving compartment. The ice-shaving compartment has an ice shaving cutter and a discharge port. Cubed ice discharged from the ice bucket is shaved into shaved ice by the ice-shaving cutter, and the shaved ice is discharged through the discharge port. To the ice shaver is connected to a shaved ice-making motor to drive the ice shaver. In FIG. 1, a method of making shaved ice includes in operation 10, using a control unit to determine whether a shaved ice-making signal is input when a user pushes a shaved ice-making button to make ice water. When it is determined in operation 10, that the shaved ice-making signal is input, the process moves to operations 20 and 30, where the control unit outputs a control signal to a shaved ice-making motor and an ice-feeding motor to drive the shaved ice-making motor and the ice-feeding motor.
The ice-feeding motor feeds cubed ice in the ice bucket to an ice-shaving compartment, where the cutter disposed in the ice-shaving compartment is operated by means of the shaved ice-making motor to shave the fed cubed ice into shaved ice. The shaved ice is discharged out of the ice-shaving compartment through the discharge port.
From operation 30, the process moves to operation 40, where the control unit determines whether a predetermined amount of shaved ice has been made. When it is determined in operation 40, that the predetermined amount of shaved ice has been made, the process moves to operation 50, where the control unit outputs a stop signal to the shaved ice-making motor and the ice-feeding motor, and the shaved ice-making motor and the ice-feeding motor are stopped.
As shown in FIG. 2, in the conventional method of making shaved ice, the shaved ice-making motor and the ice-feeding motor are operated at the same time when the shaved ice-making signal is input to the shaved ice-making motor and the ice-feeding motor, and the shaved ice-making motor and the ice-feeding motor are stopped at the same time when the predetermined amount of shaved ice has been made.
Other ice shavers for refrigerators are disclosed in detail in Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No. 1999-40637 and Korean Registered Patent Publication No. 10-360863.
In the conventional method of making shaved ice, however, the ice-feeding motor is operated simultaneously when the shaved ice-making motor is operated. As a result, ice is continuously fed to the ice-shaving compartment, and therefore, the amount of the ice is excessively increased. The excessive amount of ice may overflow the ice-shaving compartment, or may even break the ice shaver.
Furthermore, a large amount of ice is left in the ice shaver after the shaved ice has been made, since the ice is continuously fed until the making of the shaved ice is completed. As a result, the ice left in the ice shaver may mass into a lump, or the ice left in the ice shaver may thaw into water, which may drop out of the refrigerator.